According to a new report, Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice six times faster than in the 1990s – currently on track with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's worst-case climate warming scenario.

Wetlands worldwide are vanishing at an alarming rate. New maps produced by ESA's GlobWetland Africa project show how satellite observations can be used for the effective use and management of wetlands in Africa.

ESA has awarded a contract to QinetiQ to build Altius. This new mission will deliver profiles of concentrations of stratospheric ozone with high vertical resolution, as well as profiles of other atmospheric trace gases.

Heavy rainfall has triggered flooding in southern Iran, particularly in the Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan and Kerman provinces. The downpour has led to blocked roads and destroyed bridges, crops and houses – displacing thousands of people.

Ferocious bushfires have been sweeping across Australia since September, fuelled by record-breaking temperatures, drought and wind. The country has always experienced fires, but this season has been horrific.

Launched on 22 October 2001 and originally designed as a two-year mission, Proba-1 continues to provide valuable hyperspectral data to the scientific community, alongside priceless insight of long-lived missions—all while having travelled 4,329,416,712 kilometres to date.

Spare a thought this Christmas for researchers hunkered down on their Polarstern icebreaker, adrift in the frozen Arctic Ocean. Subjected to temperatures as low as -45°C and the perpetual darkness of the polar winter, they are willing participants in MOSAiC – the world's largest and longest polar research expedition. Despite the darkness, however, the researchers and crew remain aware of what is happening close by. How? With the help of radar imaging satellites